TimeRipper

by D E McCluskey

  He then noticed the spherical object in front of her.

  Binding beam, he thought.

  The woman looked asleep and not disturbed by his presence. He did another scan around the room with his black light and located more blood on the floor in front of the woman.

  ‘I wonder…’ he muttered as he inspected the blood.

  He made his way back outside to the body in the square and ran a scan over her face for DNA. There were three different types present, her own and two other traces of saliva. Delicately, he selected small amounts of the DNA and returned into the warehouse. He ran both samples through the same scanner that he had used on the blood.

  A few moments later, the portal beeped with a match. The first was Aaron Kosminski. What the hell has that animal been doing with this woman? He disregarded this result as the device beeped again. Abberline looked at the screen. The second result was a whole lot more interesting. He raised his eyebrows, nodded, and put the device away.

  He deactivated the spherical device holding the woman, before slapping her lightly in the face.

  She stirred.

  ‘Emily Callaghan?’ he asked, there was no sympathy in his voice. ‘Where is the man who captured you?’

  Her vacant eyes flicked around the room as if trying to decipher where she was. Eventually they rested on him. She stretched her eyes and her mouth, as if lack of use had stiffened them. When she eventually looked up, she had the air of someone who knew where she was but was afraid to be there.

  ‘Who are you? Where is… the man?’ she asked groggily.

  ‘That’s what I want to know. I'm assuming he was here not so long ago. Where did he go?’

  Emily sat back in the chair—her body was responding to not being bound by the beam, and she was stretching her limbs. Her movements looked painful.

  The stench of the room was coming, mostly, from her. He noticed a few discarded scraps of food lying around, but mostly he saw that the woman was sitting in her own faeces. ‘How long have you been here?’ he asked in a hushed tone.

  ‘A while,’ she replied, her body sagging. ‘And yes, he was here earlier. The bastard killed Eddowes,’ she spat, pointing at the spot where a quantum slug was lying covered in drying gore. She sat back again, sucking in a deep breath and rubbing her neck.

  As he bent down to retrieve it, Emily made her move. She lashed out at him with her foot, knocking him off balance. Then she was up and out of the chair. Even though her body was emaciated from the lengthy captivity, and bare minimum food and water, she had the strength to pick her chair up and bring it down onto Abberline’s head, hard.

  He grunted once, then fell forward, face first onto the hard floor. She made a move for the door and was out into the cold September night.

  ~~~~

  A short while later, Abberline roused, rubbing at the back of his head. The chair lay broken in pieces around him, but he had escaped serious injury. He looked over to the empty space where the chair had been. It took him a moment or two before he realised that Emily wasn’t there. ‘Damn,’ he muttered as he got shakily to his feet and made his way out of the warehouse and into the square outside. There was no sign of the girl anywhere. He reached into his cape producing the small box again. Turning it on, he typed a command into it and a screen appeared showing all the incidences of technology that should not exist in this age. There were now only five, and of the five, only one was moving.

  He gave chase.

  The device told him that she was heading along Leadenhall Street, and she was moving at quite a pace for an emaciated, naked, woman in the centre of London.

  He ran out of the square, heading in the direction his device indicated. According to it, she either didn’t know where she was going, or she was trying to put him off her scent, as her course was heading erratically towards the river.

  Abberline quickened his pace.

  She was now moving along the Thames Embankment. It looked like she was bearing towards the New Scotland Yard buildings that were currently being constructed on Queen Victoria Street. He calculated a shortcut into the device that would allow him to head her off on Westminster Bridge. He turned onto Blackfriars Bridge and crossed the river at a fine pace. He was going to take the dog leg off the river and head up Westminster Bridge before her. He kept his pace while checking hers, estimating that he should make it there with time to catch his breath. It was getting onto four in the morning, and he was aware that London would soon be waking up. He quickened his pace, intending to meet with her at the corner of Embankment.

  As he arrived, he checked her progress. She was a good two minutes behind him, giving him plenty of time to spring his trap.

  He hid on the corner of Embankment and waited. He slowed his breathing back to normal, thankful that he had maintained his fitness, not an easy thing to do in Victorian London. He checked the portal again. She was less than a minute away, her quick pace had slowed somewhat. Running naked on a diet of scraps would do that to you over three miles. He took the spherical object out of his pocket and readied his cutter while he waited until her heavy breathing could be heard along the cobbled street.

  When she was close enough, he stepped out on her, causing her to reel back. Before she could yell, he activated the binding beam. Instantly she was bathed in green light and completely immobilised. He dragged her into the darkness of the tunnel area beneath the bridge and laid her down on the floor. He noticed the flashing purple light that was residing in her chest. Her quantum slug. He would need to extract this to stop her from getting back to her own time.

  He checked his watch before peering out of the darkness of the tunnel. There were precious few people in the vicinity, and he guessed he had maybe less than half an hour before the area would begin to fill up with passing trade and the like.

  ~~~~

  Emily’s eyes were open wide. This wasn’t the man who had held her prisoner, but he had the same technology. Her neck muscles allowed her to look down towards the purple flashing light, then at the stranger who was pointing the cutting beam towards her. She watched helplessly as he activated the device, and the red beam burnt into her grimy flesh. There was nothing she could do but watch as the purple light danced around her body, evading the searing beam at every turn. Eventually, cold, raw agony overcame her, and her head rolled back; she was on the verge of fainting. A number of blood-curdling screams attempted to escape her, but she could emit no sound.

  The man was obviously not in good practice with the beam. Reality was a vague concept to her as she witnessed her left arm detach from her body. He then flicked his hand, and the beam clipped and pierced the femoral artery in her leg.

  Pain was shutting down the functions of her central nervous system. This had the unsettling effect of allowing her to watch thick jets of blood pumping out of what was left of her body. She noted that it was in perfect time with the slowing of her heartbeat. Finally, she felt one last tearing jolt of torture as the beam cut through the hip joint on her left side, severing her leg.

  Then… merciful blackness overcame her.

  ~~~~

  Abberline was covered from head to toe in blood and gore, but still the quantum slug evaded his beam. He had severed both arms and a leg. The girl was obviously dead, but the bastard slug would not give up the game.

  Finally, as the pulse of her blood began to diminish, he caught the damned thing. It was residing in her neck, and as he attempted to extract it, he inadvertently severed her head too.

  Finally, he had it.

  He watched in grim satisfaction as its purple glow dimmed on contact with the fresh air. Eventually, it blinked out altogether, and the slug became nothing more than a small metallic square. He turned off his locater, and the cutting beam, and surveyed the carnage before him.

  He took a long look at the remains of Emily Callaghan and sighed. Yes, he had done a service to the future, but yes, he had also made a mess here in the present.

  Her corpse was headless, armless, and at presen
t, only had one leg still attached. There were also many deep cuts all over the trunk of her body. Rolling his eyes at the thought of what he was about to do, he took the cutting beam and lopped off her other leg before wrapping the trunk of her body in his cloak. He looked at the remaining limbs and decided it would be best to cut them up into smaller pieces and discarded them into the murky waters of the Thames below him. He kept the head and wrapped it into the same bundle as her body. He then proceeded to drag the grisly remains back up the embankment towards the New Scotland Yard building that was still under construction.

  He had the idea that if he dumped the trunk of the body into one of the many vaults that had been built within the basement of the building, she might not be discovered for at least a few years or so. It’ll cause a great mystery. He smiled. It was his first, and only smile, of the night.

  On his way past another part of the site, he tossed her head into a pit marked for filling with concrete.

  He had built up quite a sweat by the time the evidence of Emily Callaghan’s existence, and death, had been discarded. The only thing left for him to do was to get home, as fast as he could, and wash the blood off his body and clothes. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day. There would be at least another two murders to investigate.

  54.

  Orbital Platform One. 2288

  YOUSSEF WAS IN the control room as Vincent performed his final checks, ready for his test mission. ‘Are you set?’ he asked as Kevin did a further inspection on his kit.

  ‘Probably about as ready for something I’ve never done before as I can be,’ he replied with a smile, but Youssef could see the nervousness in his face.

  ‘We’ve tried our best to prepare him for something we know nothing about,’ Kevin offered as he tightened another strap on Vincent’s back. ‘But the truth is, we’ve not had nearly enough time to prepare for this.’

  He nodded, acknowledging what Kevin had said. ‘I know, but the fact of the matter is that we would never have enough time to prepare for any of this. Jacqueline, is everything in place?’

  ‘I just have to inject him with the quantum slug, then programme our transponder codes, test the communications, and he’s good to go.’

  ‘How long?’ Youssef asked.

  ‘It’ll take about ten minutes to do all of the above, then get the Collider up and running, maybe about half an hour.’

  ‘Are you OK with this, Vincent? All set, mentally? It’s going to be a little bit...’

  ‘Oh, he’ll have a bit of a problem with the mental part of it, sir,’ she quipped.

  They both laughed.

  Satisfied with the reports and mental health of their test subject, Youssef made his way to the door. ‘OK, I’ll be back in half an hour, then we can progress this test,’ he said prior to leaving the room.

  ‘OK, now that he’s gone, there’s a few things you’re going to need.’ Kevin opened a small bag that was hidden underneath the table. ‘You probably won’t need them in Wales, not unless some of those Welsh lasses latch themselves onto you. But we’re going to need to know if they work in the past,’ he said handing Vincent a number of objects. ‘Youssef knows you need them, but he also knows their destructive properties. He still has hopes of you getting those codes via coercion, and he also knows what you’re going to have to do if they won’t give them up.’

  ‘A binding beam?’ Vincent asked.

  ‘Not just a binding beam, it’s a quantum slug tracker too. Now you’re going to need a steady hand using this,’ Kevin said, handing him a small gun shaped object.

  Vincent nodded as he received it. ‘A retriever?’

  ‘Yes. These two devices are linked, the tracker and the locator, but here’s the rub: because the locator taps into the slug, it also knows it’s being located, and it’s a smart little bastard. It doesn’t want to be found and extracted. You’ll have a battle on your hands with it, a battle that the recipient won’t survive.’

  ‘There’s no way we can nail down the slug without cutting the carrier?’ Vincent asked.

  Kevin shook his head. ‘No way we can stop that from happening, I’m afraid. It’s going to be dirty, wet work, my friend, unless you can get them to give up their codes.’

  Vincent nodded in agreement.

  ‘Have you used these before?’ Jacqueline asked, trying to change the mood.

  ‘Yeah, I’ve had training. Only, I haven’t ever had to use one to try to remove a non-responsive slug before.’ He flashed a smile at her; the meaning of it was not lost on Kevin. ‘What’s the battery life on them? I’m going to be gone for a week.’

  ‘These ones are cellular. They should be good for, maybe a year, before the life will begin to degrade,’ Jaqueline replied as she handed the devices over.

  ‘Right, I think you’re all set to go, kiddo. I’ll just go and see Youssef to get the go ahead. You two can, erm, run through the mission logs, if you want.’ He made a gesture for them to carry on as he hastily made his way out of the room.

  When the door closed behind him, Jacqueline was in Vincent’s arms like a shot. They kissed. ‘Are you really ready for this? I mean, those devices are not toys.’

  ‘They’re lethal, Jacqs. I’m not going to need them for this part of the trial. I can’t help thinking that there should be two people sent back on the main mission. I’m not a negotiator. I can’t talk them into giving up the codes. I’m a grunt, someone to do the dangerous, or the dirty stuff. It should be someone like you, or Youssef, going back.’

  ‘I’d do it. I’d love to come back with you.’

  Vincent shook his head. ‘I said someone like you. I don’t want you in any danger, and anyway, you’d be rubbish with the extractor.’

  She gave him a mock punch in the arm. ‘I’d be just as good as you,’ she replied with a laugh.

  ‘I’m serious, though, I don’t think you have the heart for this type of operation, and I don’t mean that in a condescending way. There’s a new order to things here on Earth. The EA could slip its hold on the planet, and chaos and anarchy would rule. We’re going to need you and Youssef to keep order and to make a difference. Can you imagine Kevin trying to keep the peace?’

  She tried to laugh as a small tear slipped down her face ‘Are you ready?’ she asked, not wanting to look at him.

  He held her close and kissed her. It was a long, passionate kiss, filled with intensity, longing, and tinged with more than a little sorrow and fear. ‘I am now!’ he said, winking at her.

  She turned away from him and pressed a few buttons on the portal behind her. A small syringe extended forth. Inside the syringe was a metallic looking liquid. ‘This is going to hurt for a small while, probably about five minutes while the slug sets itself into your blood stream. I’ve built a mild sedative into it to take most of the sting away.’

  He took his shirt off and sat down before her. She swabbed a localised area of his upper arm and injected the fluid.

  ‘Ow!’ he shouted as the needle penetrated his skin.

  ‘Don’t be such a baby,’ she scolded.

  After the needle receded, she turned back to her portal and linked the slug with a transponder code. Everything was working correctly.

  ‘You need to test the communication device on your wrist,’ she said. ‘And then the two spare devices that you have.’

  Vincent left the room while Jacqueline monitored the quantum link for the piggybacked communication signals.

  ‘One, two, can you hear me?’ came the voice over the portal speakers.

  ‘Loud and clear. Try the next one.’

  A few seconds later, ‘Jacqs, this is device number two, can you hear me?’

  ‘Again, loud and clear, now the third device.’

  ‘Jacqs, will you marry me?’

  ‘Loud and cle—’ she stopped abruptly. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I said, will you marry me? I’m going to need some serious motivation when I'm back there, and I want it to be you. I want you to be my wife when all this is ove
r.’

  ‘Get your ass back in here,’ she shouted.

  He walked back through the door with a sheepish look on his face.

  Hers was like thunder. ‘How could you do this to me? How could you ask me the most important thing in the world, right before you’re off, back in time, for at least a week?’

  ‘I need to know if we’re both on the same page. I need to know that there’s something special waiting for me. This is going to be the longest week, until I get back to you.’

  Her anger relented after this little speech, and a shy smile broke through. ‘Well, I’ll let you know when you get back, but I am almost fifty-one percent that it’ll be a yes.’

  ‘YES!’ Vincent shouted and punched the air.

  ‘Calm down,’ Jacqueline hissed, trying to shush him. ‘I only said fifty-one percent’

  At this point, Youssef and Kevin walked back into the room. They both eyed the youngsters with bemused looks.

  ‘What’s with all these happy faces?’ Kevin asked, his look switching between the two of them.

  ‘We’re just eager to get this mission on track, that’s all. Can we get this Hadron Collider started up, please? I’ve got a date one hundred years ago.’

  She punched the commands into the portal, and the Collider began to spin into life. Vincent climbed onto the racetrack after he had shaken the hands of both his friends, and an exaggerated shake of Jacqueline’s, coupled with a sly wink and a smile. She, in turn, blushed a little and looked away. Youssef noticed a small tear in her eye. Vincent gave the three of them an exaggerated salute as the Collider began to spin around him.

  ‘Injecting the Higgs-Boson gas now,’ Jacqueline reported as purple gas obscured Vincent from their view. ‘Injecting the modified hydrogen,’ she continued.

  The massive Hadron Collider kicked into another gear around Vincent. There was a bright purple flash, and the racetrack where he had been standing, only moments ago, filled with the dark purple Higgs Storm. The extractor fans kicked in and sucked it all into the containment bubble.